It is known to utilize powder metallurgy in order to produce components and parts. In one variant of such moulding processes a titanium powder is placed within a mould, which is then sealed, evacuated and hot iso-statically pressed to consolidate the moulded component or part. Generally, the mould is formed from an erodible material such as steel, which can be dissolved away using nitric acid to leave the moulded material part behind. There are other press consolidation techniques, which could apply or casting processes used to form components in moulds.
Unfortunately, due to the closed nature of steel and similar materials utilised to form moulds for powder metallurgy moulding using hot iso-static pressing techniques, the formed part similarly has a closed surface. Nevertheless, it is desirable to bond particularly titanium and other metal parts to other materials such as ceramics or composite substrates. Titanium can be hard to bond and normally a surface preparation is required. Current surface preparations cannot easily produce tiny re-entrant features that an adhesive can flow into and help lock the titanium to other materials such as a composite substrate. The lack of a good or adequate bond can cause the part to fail as the titanium and composite parts peel off each other.